THE NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY NOTICE
BOARD
Rheilffordd Arfordir Gogledd Cymru Bwrdd
hysbyseb
47 776 Respected calls at Bangor with the 1K67
12:45 Holyhead - Crewe on 2 February (Rowan Crawshaw)
This site is dedicated to all our regular contributors and
supporters, and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Edition of 02 February 2004
Damp Squibs
So, how did Monday 2 February go then? Well, your compiler stood in the
rain, camera batteries freshly replaced, waiting for the first run of
the new improved St Annes - Greenbank train with its two 31s, but what
appeared was 156 427 and 156 460. Sadly the Class 31s
and their train were still at Newton Heath depot, as the brake vehicle
9497 had been found to have a defect in its generator which would have
prevented operation of the Central Door Locking. The whole caboodle
remained there for the rest of the day, but allegedly they will be
ready to appear on 3 February, with 31 468 and 31 602
in charge as 31 459's traction motor fault is awaiting repair.
Elsewhere, 5H44 06:03 Holyhead Carriage Sidings - Bangor failed on
departure from Holyhead with an electrical fault on 47 770
Reserved (the one-time 47 500). The train set back into a
different siding from that in which it had spent the weekend at
Holyhead and was cancelled along with 1H44 06:38 Bangor - Manchester
Piccadilly which was restarted at Chester with 175 009.
47 760 Ribblehead Viaduct spent the day running light
engine doing a number of 'road-learning' runs to Blaenau Ffesitiniog
for EWS drivers: 0P66 08:58 Warrington Arpley - Llandudno, 0P67 11:35
Llandudno - Blaenau, 0P68 13:26 Blaenau - Llandudno Junction sidings.
It was then diverted to Holyhead to work a special 5Z44 17:00 Holyhead
- Crewe Carriage sidings comprising dead 47 770 and its train.
Incidentally, we don't know if someone somewhere read our 'dirty stock'
item, but it is reported that on the morning of Sunday 1 February
at Holyhead here were people in hi-vis vests with long brushes, soapy
water and hosepipe 'attacking' the First Great Western carriages in the
sidings. They were beginning to look better, says our correspondent.
Our contributor Alastair Graham has been engaged in email
correspondence with Arriva about this and the poor state of the 153s
used on the North Wales branches: 'The 153's Wrexham - Bidston are
often dirty inside and have no water in the toilet. The one this
afternoon [Sunday 25 January] had no oil in the sump and was also
low on cooling water it was failed by the driver resulting in running
55 minutes late and was turned back on its first trip at Shot ton. I
waited over 90 mins at Neston freezing cold. The first train did not
leave Bidston until 1801.' Customer Services, it seems, have 'e-mailed
the regional trains manager to address the issues raised.' -
2 February
Locomotive-hauled week - by Shaun Courtnage
47 798 Prince William worked the main diagram on Monday
26 January, although after arrival at Crewe on 1K57 (07:45
Holyhead-Crewe) the EWS shunter did not appear until well after the
booked departure time of the train (1D65 10:30 Crewe-Holyhead). 1D65
left 26 minutes late, and was heavily delayed following a
Manchester-Holyhead 158 and the Euston-Holyhead HST, entering Holyhead
around 45 minutes late. 1K67 12:48 Holyhead-Crewe therefore left 42
minutes late. 1D75 1527 Crewe-Holyhead left Crewe 15 minutes late, only
1G79 managed to leave on time from Holyhead after the 55 minutes break
the train gets at Holyhead. Yet again, delays caused by humans rather
than
machinery.
The Class 47 diagrams for the week used 47 635 The Lass
O'Ballochmyle, 47 760 Ribblehead Viaduct, 47 770
Reserved, 47 776 Respected, 47 798 Prince
William.
47 798's last working prior to safe storage was to have been 1H44
Bangor - Manchester on
Thursday. It did haul this train, but due to an Automatic Warning
System fault on 47 760, 798 received a reprieve and hauled 1D45
on
Friday! The loco was in need of an exam so it could only haul 1K57
07:49
Holyhead-Crewe on Saturday morning where it was replaced by 47 776. The
picture shows Prince William at Crewe just before removal from the
train.
47 776 only hauled 1D65 1021 Crewe-Holyhead, due to flooding west of
Gaerwen the return working was cancelled while the line was closed for
inspection. The 158 at Holyhead
working the 13:20 Holyhead-Manchester did not leave until around 14:45,
the 13:35 Holyhead - Stafford HST (43 065/098) did not depart
until 14:55.
Several other trains are believed to have terminated at Bangor during
the line closure. The picture shows 47 760 at a station not often
portrayed in these pages, Newton-le-Willows,
on 1H44 on Friday 30 January. - 2 February
Stranded in Holyhead
Among the passengers stranded for three hours at Holyhead on 31 January
while the flooded line was inspected was Ian Furness, webmaster
of the well-respected (and aptly-names in this case) End of the Line Website.
Ian's pictures show (above) 43 098 waiting for the go-ahead
....
... and 47 776 Respected doing much the same. - 2
February
Goodbye
transpenninexpress, Hello transpennine express
A topical picture from 27 January at Manchester Oxford Road station. On
the left is 158 802 heading for Liverpool in the last days of
its career with Arriva Trains Northern before being handed over to the
new Trans Pennine Express franchise run by a consortium FirstGroup and
French organisation Keolis. To the right is First North Western unit 158
756 engaged in working the very strange 17:05 Wilmslow - Crewe,
which calls at Styal line stations to Manchester, then runs non-stop
from Oxford Road to Crewe via Warrington. (The Wilmslow - Crewe direct
line is of course closed for engineering work.)
Two of 756's sisters, 158 757 and 158 758, have now
been transferred from First North Western to the new Trans Pennine
fleet, leaving FNW with just six of these units, 752-756 and 759. The
new franchise was launched on time on Sunday 2 February, and unveiled a
couple of 158s in what passes for a new livery. Take a look at the
pictures put up by
Pete Fenelon on his website, and marvel at quite how crude
the application of
vinyl can be. Particularly noticeable is the way they didn't have any
transfers to apply the car numbers, so they cut a hole in the new vinyl
so the old numbers would show. The letter 'i' pretending to be a ghost
is apparently extracted from the Keolis logo. Very nice
Lucy, now would
you like a go with fuzzy felt? - 2 February
Coming soon - some good
news, if we can find any....